Chapter 92

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Translator: Ace

Chapter: 092

Chapter Title: Soldiers - [6]

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Not long after, the incident came to a close.

The gate inside the ammo depot had shut. Whatever spirit had opened it must have caught sight of Tongtongi's end and gotten scared out of its wits, because it never showed its face outside the gate.

Despite the massive scale of the crisis, there hadn't been a single casualty or even injury. Everyone had plenty of reason to smile about that.

Sure enough, as I crossed through the base, the soldiers surrounding me started shouting.

"I'm actually a huge Baby Mushroom fan!"

"Kim Geuk! Kim Geuk!"

"I'll buy three Baby Mushroom T-shirts!"

And so, the next day, the military base was in full festival mode.

The colonel had canceled all duties and laid out PX frozen foods and beer for the troops to chow down on.

Those "festival foods" were basically the entire post exchange's stock of frozen junk. The stuff labeled "frozen chicken" didn't even have proper batter, and the chicken inside was some tiny scrap of meat, but in this day and age, apparently even that was a luxury.

One soldier bit into his chicken with the satisfied look of a man slicing into a thick steak, then praised the commander who'd provided these "precious" treats right in front of me.

"Man, there's no way the unit funds could've covered all this! The regiment commander must've shelled out a ton from his own pocket, huh?"

The regiment commander in question was probably that colonel.

"You guys like the regiment commander?"

"Of course we do? He pushes us hard with work and training, but that's unavoidable. Anyway, a guy like him... well..."

I grabbed a few pieces of frozen food myself and enjoyed the festivities in my own way.

Then I headed to the command center, where the colonel was in the middle of briefing his subordinate officers.

"No way. The footage shows the C4—800kg of it—attached properly and detonating perfectly, and it still tanked it? Then it took a direct hit from the anti-tank high-explosive round and got caught in the ammo depot explosion... and survived? What the hell..."

He seemed to be reviewing footage from the hunt, so I waited a bit. Only after some time did he notice me.

"When the North Koreans started making tactical nukes to control their Awakeners, I thought those commie bastards were going completely overboard. Turns out there was a good reason. If a guy with power like that goes berserk, how the hell do you even subdue him...? Oh, Hunter Kim Geuk! You're here?"

"Yep. Incheon forever."

"Come on in! No idea why you're here, but have a seat! You know how grateful I am to you for this time, right?"

The colonel made a huge fuss, then kept making a huge fuss.

He said taking down that ogre was way harder than sinking an aircraft carrier, that without me, he'd have been at a total loss on how to deal with that monster, asked if I knew how many lives Tongtongi had taken, and went on to specifically praise my achievements for saving countless people.

He didn't seem to be buttering me up—it looked like genuine joy—so I hesitated for a moment.

It felt bad to ruin that smile, but I'd come here to bring up a topic he'd hate.

After a pause, I spoke up.

"I heard you were originally planning to deploy Awakener soldiers. Is that true? To take down Tongtongi, you planned to send them out near the end of their service..."

At my question, the colonel looked a bit flustered but nodded.

"No idea where you heard that, but yeah, that was the rough plan. That's why we had them shadow Hunters to gain some hunting experience."

This crazy bastard. I hadn't expected him to admit it so straightforwardly.

"Isn't that too much? If you'd done that, they all would've ended up as Tongtongi's shit, no question."

To my accusation, the colonel just gave an awkward smile. Then he explained.

"To make excuses: first off, the Hunter Association's analysis said we could take it down with our own forces. Since it was a four-meter ogre, they figured the force field would be around that level of durability. Yeah, there'd ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠be casualties if we went after it, but it wasn't so bad we couldn't engage at all. And..."

"And?"

"There wasn't any other way to take it down with minimal sacrifices. Just throwing bodies at monsters doesn't work—that was proven in Operation Eagle—and heavy bombing doesn't faze the ones holed up in gates... So in the end, we had to send a small team..."

"Still, Awakener soldiers are just regular kids who got drafted after normal lives. Sending only them on a suicide mission where casualties are guaranteed, just because they're Awakeners—isn't that discrimination?"

To my second accusation, the colonel answered calmly.

"We had to sacrifice someone eventually. And if we had to, minimizing the numbers was the right call."

"After making them suffer through their whole service, you think it's right to send them off to die at the end?"

"Yes. I know it's dirty and underhanded to spring it on them at the last minute, but what can you do? Better I take the heat. It was the cleanest, cheapest way."

Any more talk and we'd end up fighting. And whether non-Awakener trash or whatever, I didn't want to sour things with comrades who'd fought together, so I just nodded and left the command center.

Of course, nodding didn't mean I agreed.

I crossed the base with a stiff expression. Then I ran into the Awakener soldiers, who greeted me first.

"Hey, Brother Kim Geuk!"

They seemed thrilled, so I grinned back.

"Now you all have an extra line for your A-rank Hunter contracts: 'Hunted the Terror of Mani Mountain, a monster tougher than an aircraft carrier'..."

"Eh, 'hunted together' feels like a stretch. Our shots didn't even scratch it. We just made it hesitate a bit..."

"That's hunting together. And how rare is it to fire at a beast like that? Even A-rank Hunters with years under their belts haven't shot at something that big. You all didn't flinch and nailed it—good enough."

I held out my palm, and a soldier who got the hint immediately high-fived me.

After slapping palms with all eleven, I said,

"You still have my business card? If you want to go Hunter after discharge, hit me up. Wanna know the industry early? Log into HuntWeb on ChatZone! I hang out there too..."

"Wait, someone said you're the HuntWeb named BabyBerserker or something? What's that?"

"Something like that. My sacred other self."

"What're you on about? Anyway... thanks for real this time."

"Hm?"

"When we first got orders to climb Mani Mountain with the Hunters, I thought, 'Great, more suffering.' But tagging along? Stuff I'll never forget. You've given me a whole new view of Hunters."

The one spouting that cringey line? The guy whose life I'd saved once before. The one who nearly died to the Deathclaw.

I grinned at him and the rest, then parted ways.

Riding back with the other Hunters in the van, everyone looked content and crashed out.

Baek Dam-bi seemed especially pleased—humming that damn tune again. Probably thought her contributions this time got her closer to Golden Arrow.

Seong Mun-yeong next to me spoke up.

"Hyung, that thing we took down—was it top-tier historic?"

"Nightmare level. If we'd ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠gone by the original plan without backup, some of us would've died."

"It ended well, so fine. How do you feel after bagging it? Stronger?"

"Yeah."

"By how much?"

"A ton."

"Exactly how much?"

As Seong Mun-yeong asked, I felt almost everyone in the van staring at me.

I knew they got vicarious thrill from their boss leveling up. I answered in a proud voice.

"As much as the length of Bupyeong Underground Mall."

"What kinda nonsense is that?"

Incheon boys can't understand plain talk? Idiot.

Instead of explaining, I showed them.

I picked up the hammer head that had broken off from the shaft during the fight.

I pressed my index finger into it—poke.

"Superman?"

Seong Mun-yeong muttered at the finger-deep hole in the hammer head. Everyone else's eyes locked on it, bulging for a while.

Even Baek Dam-bi, who pretended zero interest in guy talk while humming away, snuck a peek and blinked like crazy—I saw it clear as day.

What a cute girl. I smiled smugly.

Back home, I posted on HuntWeb in my signature cute style. Here's what it said:

New users pouring in with fresh reactions—pure joy. No need to bump the threshold for a while.

As night fell, news of my exploits aired. People who connected the dots to my post flooded the comments.

Reactions like that always give me a thrill. They make all the hardship worth it.

Thanks to the hype, I replayed my feats in my head and drifted off peacefully.

But as always after dreaming that dream, sleep wasn't peaceful.

Ah...

As always, I woke gasping for breath.

Cold sweat pouring down, I replayed the dream.

The usual dream. The one that always ends in a nuclear blast...

This time, I glimpsed the middle part—the sequence after the last hallucination.

In the dream, with help from like-minded comrades, I opened a gate.

The gate to Sowol.

And dream-me finally succeeded in sending the Awakener soldiers and non-Awakener trash to Sowol. I seemed thrilled to give the trash the lives they deserved.

But not even three months later, the Awakeners I'd sent returned to Korea. Along with the non-Awakener slaves I'd attached, the officers, NCOs, and their families.

Dream-me had thought mentally fragile Awakeners sent to brutal Sowol would adapt naturally. That Awakener soldiers would act like Sowol lords, and the non-Awakeners like Sowol slaves.

Wrong. The hundreds of Awakeners couldn't abuse or enslave the non-Awakeners freely.

Instead, they got persuaded by the very non-Awakeners meant to be slaves. No clue on the details, but probably something like "quit this madness and let's all go home."

And likely, a nearby Sowol lord—unhappy with unfamiliar Awakeners swarming near his territory—had his Ice Awakener open a gate back to Earth.

Through it, everyone I'd sent returned.

And upon return, they didn't hide why they'd been sent to Sowol. They told everyone.

"We went to Hunter Kim Geuk, famous for Teleportation, for help. But he forced us to go to Sowol—not just us, but..."

"I was off duty, relaxing at home. Door was locked! Then this huge musclehead pops into my room out of nowhere..."

My face was all over the news for days. Headlines like "Awakener supremacist Kim Geuk kidnaps hundreds" and sensational crap.

Obviously, I'd be wanted, unable to Hunter anymore, forced to switch from Hunter to terrorist.

After living through it all, my take? Pathetic and disgusting.

What an idiot. Acting like everything would go exactly as his delusions? What the hell?

And simultaneously: if hallucination-me—my other self—was that deranged, Korea's ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠situation back then must've been dire too.

Those Awakener soldiers went to that lunatic for help and accepted his insane proposal. Meaning no one else helped them.

And if I hadn't intervened this time, those eleven unlucky Awakeners would've met miserable ends. Pushed by that bastard's logic—better sacrifice a few Awakeners than the masses—straight into the monster's ass.

No one helped them. Not Korean reporters, politicians, or regular citizens.

How to fix this suffocating reality?

Voting more or political activism? No.

We're a tiny minority among the disgusting non-Awakener horde. We can't match their volume. So how?

Can't copy hallucination-Kim Geuk's way, but some other method...

Shouldn't I help my kin?

If the strongest among us, Kang Jun-chi, won't step up, shouldn't I?

This incident proved we're oppressed. Like Jews suffering Nazis, herded to camps, dying in pogroms.

Even tough ones like Physical Enhancers or Force Field users—I hadn't realized they were in this mess too. From my Korean Awakener Alliance days, I thought only weak ones like Ice Awakeners suffered. Turns out everyone's screwed.

To let my kin survive among these Nazis, someone has to step up and change it all.

Even if it means sprouting a mushroom ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠right in central Seoul...

Mid-thought, my phone rang.

It was someone I knew.

"Detective Jin?"

The cop uncle. The Ice Awakener one.

"Kim Geuk? That you? Can you... help me out...?"

His voice—booming even during that suicide riot at the detention center—was weak now. Jin begged in utter exhaustion.

"You said you're with the Korean Awakener Alliance, some Awakener rights group... right?"

His tone alone screamed trouble. This old-school guy who'd bantered down to me from the start because I was younger? Begging like this?

I asked,

"What the hell happened?"